Opinion: Mining industry needs cleanup

When the law regulating hard rock mining was written, Ulysses S. Grant was in the White House and the nation wanted to encourage expansion into the Wild West. Now, mining companies seeking gold, copper and silver have devastated much of the West, releasing more toxic material into the environment than any other industry, yet the law has not changed since 1872. Year after year, decade after decade, mining interests have been able to defeat reform efforts in Congress.

That could be changing. Not only is a bipartisan group of House members pushing for a new law, but support for reform is coming from two unlikely sources: the mining industry and Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

Mining is no longer practiced by crusty characters with mules and pickaxes. Multinational companies leech gold and copper out of the earth with poisonous materials such as cyanide and sulfuric acid that end up in the environment. Forty percent of Western waterways have been polluted by mining. Yet the law gives federal officials little discretion to reject a mining claim.

Under the mining act, companies are able to take ownership of public land for decades and pay less than $5 an acre. They can extract valuable minerals and leave behind an unsightly, toxic mess. Taxpayers are left to pay for the cleanup. In return, they get not even a penny back from the mining companies.

Even the generous laws regulating coal mining and oil drilling on public land are more demanding. Those industries must pay royalties of 8 percent to 12.5 percent for what they take. In 2000, $982-million worth of hard rock minerals were extracted from public land, so even an 8-percent royalty would have returned $78-million to taxpayers.

Instead of getting a return on their land, taxpayers must pick up the tab for the destruction mining does. More than 500,000 abandoned mines exist at an estimated cost of more than $32-billion to reclaim. The law allows such abuses because it exempts miners from some environmental laws and essentially forces federal land managers to ignore environmental damage when a claim is sought.

For decades, the mining industry has fought off reform. Now, a bill filed by Democratic Reps. Nick Rahall, W.Va., and Jay Inslee, Wash., and Republican Rep. Christopher Shays, Conn., would plug gaping holes in the law. Its commonsense measures would allow public land to be mined only if that use is suitable, and it would put environmentally significant land off limits. It would establish mining standards to limit environmental damage and require mining companies to clean up their own messes. Miners wouldn't get a free ride, either. They would be required to pay an 8 percent royalty on the minerals they extract.

Mining has done so much damage to the Western states that the tide of public opinion is turning. Recognizing that, even the National Mining Association says it is ready to pay a royalty (though it is quibbling about the amount) and it is receptive to the idea of industry-funded cleanups. Although Interior Secretary Norton has rarely seen an environmental regulation she didn't want to weaken, she seems open to a rewrite of the mining law.

"Even the mining industry finds it hard to defend a 130-year-old law," said Lexi Shultz with the watchdog Mineral Policy Center. "The chances for reform are much greater than they have been in many years."

For the sake of American taxpayers and the environment, Congress should not let this opportunity pass.

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